Chiefs Rookie WR Drawing Comparisons to Rashee Rice

The Kansas City Chiefs added a new weapon for quarterback Patrick Mahomes to utilize this upcoming season through the 2025 NFL Draft. Selecting wide receiver Jalen Royals out of Utah State, the young wide receiver could have a larger role than anticipated going into the new year.

Royals was selected by the franchise in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. Originally projected as a second or third round player, the Chiefs are getting good value from what Royals is on paper. Now the goal is to mold him into a successful wide receiver at the professional level, alongside the other youthful Chiefs wide receivers.

One of those young wide receivers who could heavily influence Royals is Rashee Rice. Rice is likely to return at some point in the 2025 campaign after only playing in four games last season. His speed and agility are needed for this franchise, as Mahomes needs to move the ball more than he did last season.

Rice has shown his abilities for the Chiefs when healthy before. In his rookie campaign, Rice collected 938 receiving yards and 79 receptions. He was on a strong pace last season before the injury took him down, leaving a majority of the workload to 2024 first-rounder Xavier Worthy.

But with Rice likely to play next year, as well as Royals, the two could become a well utilized pair alongside Worthy. So. much so that Royals has been compared to Rice in similarities from Kansas City scouts, primarily director of player personnel Ryne Nutt.

"[Run after the catch] is a big part of our offense. That's something we look for in receivers," Nutt said. We look for speed. The kid had that 4.40 [40-yard dash at the scouting combine]. We look for strength, and he has that. Then we look for route running and that's probably an area where Rashee had to kind of develop a little bit, so we kind of thought they were similar in that respect.''

"With Rashee coming back from injury and trying to get right, the hopes are this kid can step in and try to get some playing time and help us out."

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